It’s important to know that your child’s school provides opportunities throughout the year for teachers to learn new skills. This type of teacher training is referred to as professional development (PD).
Understood, a nonprofit organization that was formed to help the millions of parents whose children ages 3–20 are struggling with learning and attention issues, offers a parent toolkit with resources to help you advocate for professional development at your child’s school.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makes it possible to include teacher training in an Individualized Education Program (IEP). But that’s a child-by-child, year-by-year decision. This toolkit takes a broader approach that encourages schoolwide teacher training to help all kids with learning and attention issues.
The toolkit focuses on four strategies that are designed to bring about system-wide changes that can help kids with learning and attention issues thrive. You may want to choose a favorite strategy and focus on that. Or you may decide to advocate for PD in all of these areas:
View or download the parent toolkit, How to Ask for Schoolwide Teacher Training to Help Kids With Learning and Attention Issues to learn how to advocate for teacher training that can help your child’s school better support the 1 in 5 kids with learning and attention issues.
Learn more about advocacy by viewing the presentation and materials from Advocacy in Action—Sharing Your Story to Make Change, a workshop presented by Meghan Whittaker, National Center for Learning Disabilities‘ Policy & Advocacy Manager and Robert Stephens, Sr. Manager, Federal Relations, at EdRev Expo 2018.